The cheers coming from the Horizon Park softball dugout in Scottsdale Wednesday were loud and well orchestrated:

“See that batter at the plate
She’s the best one in the state
She has spirit, she has pride
Too bad for you she’s on our side”

While cheers and chants from dugouts are common, what is said hinges on the gender. Baseball and softball teams use them to get their intensity up but they reach that goal in different ways.

“When kids are engaged, like when they’re reminding each other of how many outs there are it isn’t because not all of them know,” said Bob Hershey, the Gilbert Christian head coach. “It’s to keep the kids engaged. Baseball is an odd thing. You have some down time then you have to be explosive.”

It is typical for a baseball team to repeatedly encourage teammates at the plate with rapid fire comments in a tone they normally do not speak. In softball, however, the motivation comes from planned chants.

“It’s a really big deal for our players,” said Cheryl Nelson, a club softball coach in Scottsdale. “They’ll spend hours talking about what they’re going to say, almost as much time as they spend practicing.”

From youth sports to professional ones, the most accomplished teams are typically ones that have tight bonds.

Players want to feel other players have their backs. Shouts from the dugout can reinforce that.

“It really builds and atmosphere,” said Taylor Mayfield, a senior on the Gilbert Christian baseball team. “It helps us get energized and it’s something you don't really realize until you see it happening and one whole team is getting up and going crazy. Then on the other side that team is silent and just going through the motions.”

The chatter from baseball dugouts often starts at a young age with simple and playful remarks. It could be a simple, “You got this one-seven,” or “Three up, three down, let’s go,” to a more funny-voiced comment, like the one popularized in the movie “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.”

Hey batta batta batta batta. Swing batta.

The remarks are usually short.

That’s the way it is with the Gilbert Christian baseball team. Whether it be a quick comment or reminder of outs for the batter, the vocalists in the dugout never seem to lack creativity. It creates a culture that resides on the sidelines and stays with teams for years.

And when it comes to culture and tradition, Gilbert Christian has plenty. The Knights hold a team prayer after every game and believe in a strong work ethic.

But you won’t hear them recite lengthy rhyming cheers, as is often heard in softball.

We’re gonna make you shiver
We’re gonna make you shake
We’re gonna keep on pushin
To see what you can take

“The interaction between girls and guys is much different on and off the field,” Gilbert Christian senior Kevin Baca said. “I personally think at that point it’s kinda childish.”

But why is there such a distinct difference between the two sports?

“In our society, often girls aren’t introduced to sports as early as boys,” said Bettina Lehnert, a Scottsdale-based psychologist. “So when they are put on teams, they try to find quicker ways to adapt, to feel comfortable. I imagine the cheers are the ultimate bonding tool.”

As chatter mostly falls off when the baseball player gets to the college and professional level, softball chatter does not. NCAA softball teams around the country bring the chants to the big stage.

The Auburn softball team is one of the most well known, and has one cheer that’s hard to decipher:

Bodda getta, bodda getta, bodda getta, bah,
Rah, rah, rah,
Sis boom bah,
Weagle, weagle,
War Damn Eagle!
Kick 'em in the butt, Big Blue,
Hey!

Nelson said she noticed a trend with softball. Players are big on cheers when they’re young. They often do them less in high school but those in college bring it to a new level.

"Softball, it's a game," former Tennessee softball player Rainey Gaffin told ESPNW. "We are

fighting for a championship, but it's still supposed to be fun. So I think trying to create a fun

atmosphere in the dugout, I think it helps to increase our energy, keep us in the game at the same time, but stay together and really, really focus on making sure that our energy is up on defense and on offense."

Television coverage of the Women’s College World Series often focuses on the dugouts and the chants and dances. ESPNW recently did a list of “NCAA Softball’s Best Dugouts.”

“The creativity really keeps things upbeat,” Nelson said.

It’s hard to pinpoint the start of cheers in dugouts, especially for softball. In a 1999 story, the Washington Post wrote, “How the songs started and why they're only used in softball remain a mystery to area coaches and players. Some speculate they began in softball-crazy California and gradually migrated East …by the mid-1980s – around the time the windmill-motion pitch reached here."

Although softball cheers seem to become more creative when players reach college, the same can’t be said for baseball chants.

Rarely if ever is anything said in unison in college or pro baseball dugouts, and most words are reserved for a quick taunt at an opponent.

“That’s machismo,” Lehnert said. “Society would probably see it as ridiculous for grown men to be singing a song or chanting something collectively in a dugout. There is less judgment in that regard with women.”

A baseball team would never say this:

We don’t play with Barbie dolls
We just play with bats and ball
We don’t wear no mini skirt
We just wear pants and t-shirts
We don’t drink no lemonade
We just drink our powerade
So if I were you, I’d scoot your booty back
But I’m not you so I’d stay where you’re at

“We stay more on the side of chatter,” said Justin Carr, a senior on Gilbert Christian. “It keeps us engaged. It helps us play better, believe it or not and it definitely builds chemistry.”

Teams can get in trouble when creativity crosses the line of bad taste or taunting. In 2007, a youth baseball organization in Ohio called the Knothole Club of Greater Cincinnati made headlines when it made a rule to eliminate chatter, the Cincinnati Enquirer reported.

The decision was made because of the increased incidents of taunting between two teams of players in the 14-year-old division. The Enquirer reported that incidents escalated and one parent received stitches after he was hit in the head by a player holding a baseball shoe with spikes.

“That’s where things can get out of hand,” Lehnert said. “There is great value in bonding and teamwork but when the words become poisonous, it can really shift the emotions.

“Group cheers and chant can be almost lyrical and positive. But when they take a negative slant, it starts sounding aggressive and that can trigger another group to react. It can really turn quickly.”

Aggressiveness goes hand in hand with sports. Coaches do their best, especially at the youth level, to minimize confrontation.

“That’s not how the game should be played,” said Carr. “You should never target the opposing team.”

Nelson said when she hears her players, who range from 10 to 12, talking about cheers, she tries to steer them toward the positive ones. She likes how it reinforces teamwork and togetherness.

“I’ve seen shy girls come to this team, practically crying when their parents drop them off, and then they have instant friendships,” she said. “And they never want to leave. Some are here for the softball. Others come for the friendship. I’m totally fine with that. Sports isn’t supposed to be life and death.”